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I want to thank the bogelheads for helping me solve this problem. I should have asked here first. What I ended up doing (for the benefit of anyone searching this issue in the future) was to simply transfer the shares from my old joint account into my new Trust account. I clicked the box that said to...

You didn't specify what version on Quicken you are using. I did some experiments in Quicken 2013 Deluxe. If you downloaded data from Vanguard, it may be useful or not. I don't use Vanguard anymore as I prefer Fidelity's service. After keeping careful note of the contents for the downloaded transact...

Sure. After the assets are transferred to the new account, do one final sync with Vanguard. Then, unlink the current account from Vanguard. Then link it to the new trust account and sync. Then, manually delete the transfer of asset (I.e., delete and add) transactions. Quicken will retain the histor...

I've searched and posted questions on the Quicken blog sites without getting anywhere. So, I'm turning to the wisdom of the bogleheads. I recently created a Trust. Vanguard required me to create a new account for the Trust and then move all of my holdings into the new account. (Frustrating, as Fidel...

Thanks for all of your thoughts. I decided to go with the 1/5 to Penfed and keep 4/5 in individual munis. I realize that this isn't much of a change . . . My thinking on the individual munis is that they represent something akin to a pension or annuity for me (I have neither). Yes, I currently pay a...

If unsure, how about half in the PenFed CD and half in a muni bond fund, either the CA intermediate or if you want to diversify away some of the state-specific risk, the national TE fund? Kevin Thanks for the suggestion. It certainly makes sense. I am currently thinking (at least for the next 24 ho...

What is the boglehead approach to fixed income with regard to maturity and risk? I understand stock indexing and low costs. But, I'm struggling with how that relates to fixed income. The most obvious answer is to use bond index funds with low costs. However, at current rates and with the expectation...

Like many, I am considering the best place to put some of the fixed income portion of my portfolio. For context, my fixed income includes a mixture of 2 bond funds (TBM in IRA, and CA intermediate tax free in taxable), CD's some maturing next month, Ibonds, EE bonds, individual CA GO bonds, and savi...

The Penfed 5 year CD (certificate) rate of 3% is pushing me to swap my Vanguard Total Bond Fund in my IRA to my Penfed IRA. Any help with these questions would be much appreciated: 1. This seems like a no brainer to swap total bond market with lower than 3% return rates (SEC or distribution) for an ...

The reason I feel somewhat confident with my 3% fixed withdrawal plan is that my budget (based on 5+ years of actual spending preretirement) requires only 2.125%. As a result, if the market crashes, I still have a huge cushion. If the market tanked by 50%, my 3% withdrawal in dollars would still be ...

We are planning a 3% withdrawal rate over 50 years. Here are my assumptions (all figures present dollars before tax): 50%: Fixed income earns 3.5% (fixed income is in long-term munis at 5%, I and EE bonds at approximately 3.5%, taxable muni bond fund at 3.5%, total bonds in IRA at 2.5%, and "ca...

During periods of low interest rates, it's common for bond funds to hold a lot of premium bonds, which also pushes distribution yields higher than SEC yields. The price of these high-coupon bonds declines as they approach maturity, reducing the SEC yield. When interest rates are rising, which many ...

I don't follow. The fund is buying and selling bonds continually in order to maintain a specific duration/maturity. The difference between a 6 year bond and a 5 year bond wouldn't explain the difference between the SEC yield and the distribution yield. I agree that the fund may change from bonds bo...

sdvan: what's happening is that the funds own older bonds with high coupon rates that are still valued at a premium vs. face value. As they approach maturity, these bonds decline in value towards par. So in effect, their cash-flow (high coupon, low par) is more front-heavy than recent bonds. When t...

Ultimately, I care about how much money I receive from the fund (distribution yield), not what the fund would earn if the bonds were held to maturity (SEC yield). Interesting. I care about total return, which includes change in NAV as well as distributions. SEC Yield (a type of YTM) incorporates pr...

I'm returning to the expected return for TBM (distribution yield versus SEC yield). The distribution yield was 2.34% on June 1. It's been running 2.34% to 2.45% since the beginning of the year. The SEC yield has been increasing from 1.56% to 1.79% today. As I think about the "yield" for TB...

I'm still frozen on this issue. I decided to wait and see the distribution yield for TBM on June 1. Distribution yield dropped from 2.36% to 2.34%. SEC yield rose from 1.56% to 1.63%. Not much insight from those numbers for me. Alternatives to TBM: 1. Vanguard Brokered CDs: The easiest option would ...

The SEC yield is the yield you will get on the bond fund going forward. The other yield you see is past performance. This can be confusing. The SEC yield is considerably lower right now than the historical yield. Keep in mind that if the SEC yield of a bond fund were to rise your NAV would simultan...

As I get ready to purchase CDs, I realize that the total bond fund distributions are higher than the 2% that I can get for a cd right now. I am conflicted between staying the course until the distributions drop below the cd rate and the concern that the cd won't be available at the same rate when I ...

I understand the math that says that holding a bond fund for the duration of the fund after an interest rate increase will result in a return of the temporarily lost NAV plus a total return at the rate of return in effect prior to the interest rate increase. My question is which rate of return to ex...

Yes, in theory, I could hold for 5 years after each interest rate increase and I'd earn the interest rate prevailing at the time of the interest rate increase. But, at what cost? If instead, I purchase individual bonds and hold them to maturity, I never suffer any NAV loss regardless of what intere...

The reason to consider individual bonds is the guarantee that they will not lose NAV if held to maturity. In theory the fund also could function similarly if held for the duration after an interest rate increase. But, the NAV hit from multiple interest rate increases and the tiny returns have me con...

Thanks for some interesting thoughts. But, I think some are not clear on my question. I am suggesting moving out of two bond funds (total bond and Cal. intermediate tax free) and moving the money into individual California general obligation tax exempt bonds. I hear LH saying that treasuries and TIP...

I hold bond funds to offset equity risk too. The problem I'm having with bond funds is that they are becoming more risky and simultaneously going down in total return. As a result, I'm looking for alternatives that don't have the risk of a significant principle loss while at the same to meeting or b...

Sorry for another bond funds post. But, I'm starting to rethink my bond fund exposure. I'm in the Van total bond index fund in my IRA and the Cal. intermediate tax exempt bond fund in my taxable account. I hate the thought of significant NAV losses in these funds. These funds are supposed to be the ...

A few years ago, I finally overcame my fear of bond funds going down when interest rates rose and moved a big chunk from CD's and savings accounts to Van Total Bond in an IRA account and Van Cal. Intermediate Tax Exempt in a taxable account. Over the course of the first year or so, I saw a bunch of ...

Thank you. After some web searches, I came to the same conclusions: 1. IRA: Name the children as primary beneficiaries. The only purpose of the trust is probate avoidance. Therefore, there is no purpose (and some potential downsides) to naming the trust as primary beneficiary. 2. Deferred Annuity: K...

After a few web searches, it appears that the potential downside to naming a trust as the primary beneficiary of an IRA is that it is possible that the IRA could be required to be distributed more quickly resulting in negative tax consequences. While the opinions on the web aren't totally uniform, i...

My elderly mother has a rollover IRA account in her name with the primary beneficiary the Living Trust for my mother and now deceased father. The secondary beneficiaries are all of her children. My mother also has an after tax deferred annuity account with the same company (Ameriprise) where the pri...

I'm not sure how many financial advisors understand the benefits of the Roth conversion. However, you should be able to find some articles on it. I've written on it for the Journal of Retirement Planning, and others have written on it for various journals. Or you could give them Dick Benson's and m...

I've been noodling the Roth issue. I now understand the tax savings. My Mom is on the edge of making this worth the effort. However, my siblings are VERY resistant to the idea. They keep asking why we would make Mom pay the tax now when we can pay it later if there is anything left when she passes. ...

I finally received copies of the annuity contracts from Riversource. I don't totally follow the annuity tables. But, here are some details: 1. Dad's Deferred Variable Annuity in rollover IRA (now rolled over into Mom's name in a new IRA with Ameriprise): Bought in 1988 with lump premium Fixed Intere...

My father just passed away and I am trying to help my mother get all of the financial affairs in order. They had a living trust and all of their bank and investment accounts included the living trust somehow (but they appear to be somewhat different at each location). I asked the attorney who drafte...

I hadn't thought about the Roth conversion. She has a few IRA's so the issue could cover more than one account. Obviously, she is at the stage where she can take out as much of the IRA that she wants without a penalty. So, the only question is whether it is worth taking the tax hit now for tax free ...

Thanks everyone. I have requested the contracts for both annuities. They are looking . . . My father passed in 2013 so we have this year as married filing jointly. But, I have been rolling over all of my dad's IRA's into IRA's for my mom--either newly created at the same financial instituation or in...

One thing I didn't see mentioned was what the money is currently invested in and if it would generate any taxes or fees if she sells her current investments to move the money around. I would assume that it might not but that would be worth confirming. Putting $10K a year into i-bonds would likely b...

you are comparing apples and oranges. If you put $500k in an annuity, you will get $60k per year in income, forever (using your figures). The advantage is your mom can't run out. The disadvantage is that her heirs will get nothing. Your plan actually makes her situatio more risky, and yours potenti...

I am helping my 84 year old mother after my dad recently passed away. I just discovered that they have two annuities and I'm not sure what to do with them. I haven't bothered studying up on annuities because I was always turned off by the fees. Anyway, I'd appreciate any insights into these two annu...

It is interesting that you mentioned a possible annuity. Here are the reasons why I decided that an annuity did not make sense in this situation. I have not studied annuities because I was always turned off by the fees. But, it looks like I may need to be a little more educated now. Buying an annuit...

Thanks for all the comments. This list is always great for helping me make sure that I've thought through all of the potential issues. One nugget that I can contribute is that I checked on NCUA deposit insurance limits and learned that they are expanded by the number of beneficiaries, if the account...

Ok, that makes sense. She is very conservative as my folks did somewhat poorly under a churning financial advisor years ago. It was all I could do to get them into the 22k total stock fund 7 years ago. Now that it is just my mom and she is 84, I think it is best just to stick with asset protection.

I don't think I could talk her into putting any more into the market. And, to be fair, I don't think she needs to take on any risk. If she lives to be 100, she could take out double her current spending needs (including social security) and still have enough to last all that time. Why take on any ma...

My father recently passed away and my mother has asked me to help her figure her finances. The bottom line is that she has about $550k in assets, not including her house and a small mountain cabin. Social security provides about $20k/year. I'm still getting my arms around annual spending. But, my gu...

I am sitting on a large foreign tax credit as a result of former employment. My accountant tells me that it is essentially useless because my new employment does not involve foreign income. Would investing in mutual funds with foreign stocks allow me to utilize my credit? I've got some of my portfol...

You could spend $3.9 M on an immediate annuity adjusted for inflation. That would give you $150,000 the first year and adjust for inflation thereafter. That'd leave you $1.1 M to invest and never have to touch .. unless you wanted more than $150,000 some year. Really? You can buy an annuity that gi...

Here is a hypothetical example with some math behind my thinking. Let's say one has a portfolio of $5 million that is splite 50% total stock fund and 50% total bond fund and a current annual budget of $150K. $150K is 3% of $5 million. However, if the stock market drops by 50%, then the stock portion...

Did you verify this using http://www.firecalc.com/ ? I don't know that firecalc supports this plan. I did play around with it, but I didn't see exactly what I'm describing. As someone pointed out to me several years ago, if you only take a set percentage out of your portfolio, by definition it will...

I am certain someone (likely many people) have considered the 4% reset method where you reset your 4% withdrawal every year based on your new portfolio value. I remember discussing the issue several years ago on one of these boards. I am now at the point where my resources match my budget for 3-4% w...